Lajitas Patio Brunch

This shot is another from our trip this summer to Lajitas in Big Bend country. It’s a table set for a mid-morning brunch on the resort restaurants eastern exposure. The shaded scene looked like a good place to take a little break from the 100 degree plus weather.

Tech: Oly E-3 w/ 50-200 Zuiko @ f2.8 @ 50mm, 1/6400th @ ISO1250, Aperture Priority Post Processing: Duplicate Background>Crop>Levels>Curves>Merge Visible>Len Distortion Vignette for Additional Darkening the Foreground

East Beach Gate

Took a trip down to Galveston today and shot this entry gate to East Beach. It was rainy, breezy, and cold [for Texas anyway] and I was hoping to find some fairly dramatic skies. This gate was recently sandblasted and battered by Hurricane Ike and looked to me more like something from Beirut than it did a ticket booth for Texas tourist.

Tech: Oly E-3 w/ 12-60 Zuiko @ f4 @ 12mm, 1/200th @ ISO100, Aperture Priority, with Stacked Circular Polarizing and Enhancing Filters Post Processing: Duplicate Background>TA “Specify”>Rotate>Crop>Vignette>Merge Visible to New Luminosity Layer>Levels to Brighten Highlights in Sky

Kindred Spirits

FYI – These are football fans!!! I don’t think they minded so much that they were supporting opposing teams on this day. It’s pretty obvious these two strangers have more in common than who their favorite NFL team is.

Tech: Oly E-3 w/ 12-60 Zuiko @ f4.5 & 12mm, 1/20th @ ISO2000, Aperture Priority. Post Processing: Duplicate Background>Crop>High Pass Sharpen>TA “Mid Color Pop”

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, one day late, to all!

I took a few photos at my wife’s niece’s first birthday party this weekend and this was one of my favorite shots. I like the juxtaposition of the balloon photo and the subject baby in the baby in the background, and the colors for sure. There’s something else intangible there that I can’t put my finger on, but I’m not going to worry about it. Sometimes you just like a photo for not particular reason.

Tech: Oly E-3 w/12-60 Zuiko @ 55mm, f4.0, 1/400 @ ISO2000 Post Processing: Duplicate Background>TA Noise Reduction>Merge Visible>Levels>Curves>Hue/Saturation>TA “Psychedelic”>Lens Distort Vignette

Thanks Barry, I agree. Here's a version where I've used a deep blue photo filter in CS2 to change the water color to something closer to the sky..

White Oak Bayou Christmas Tree

Correction: I originally posted this shot as "Buffalo Bayou Christmas Tree" but have since been corrected. The tree is actually in "White Oak Bayou" near downtown Houston.

Talk about putting lipstick on a pig! Someone must have had a warped sense of humor when they decided to hang Christmas tree ornaments on this gnarly old tree. Located northwest of downtown Houston this tree stands alone in a long stretch of Buffalo Bayou not to far from the University of Houston Downtown. It caught my eye from the freeway and it took me about 45 minutes to find a vantage point to shoot this shot from. I like the shot but imagine that I will go back to this spot again and try to improve on it. This shot features a lot of post processing and the scene I spotted from the highway seemed surreal enough to me that I feel like I should be able to capture it more honestly. Or maybe it looks the way I saw it now! To be continued….

Tech: Oly E-3 w/ 12-60 Zuiko @ f5 & 16mm, ISO2000, Aperture Priority. Post Processing: Combine 3 Exposures in Photomatix Pro>High Pass Sharpen>Topaz Noise Reduction>Topaz Adjust Specify w/ Gradient Mask>Topaz Adjust Simplify>Lens Distortion Vignette

Boy in the Crowd

This boy was in the stands at Reliant Stadium for last weeks Texan game one row down and two seats to the left of me. He kept turning around looking over his shoulder and over our heads at something going on in the stands behind us. He did this just often enough that had reason to assume he’d do it again. I laid my camera in my lap and folded out he articulated screen so that I could focus on him without looking directly at him and when he turned I snapped this shot. The problem was I had my 70-200 and 1.4 converter on my camera and wasn’t sure I could focus within the six foot max distant. I like the resulting shot. The long focal length really did a good job of separating him from the busy background of the crowd. It supports my theory that it’s better to be lucky than good!

Tech: Oly E-3 w/ 70 Zuiko and 1.4 Tele Converter@ 200mm [35mm =], f5.0, 1/1600, ISO200, Aperture Priority. Post Processing: Duplicate Background>High Pass Sharpen>Merge Visible>Levels, Curves>Topaz Noise Reduction>Crop Square.

Fellow Photographer

I spotted this fellow at Reliant Stadium attending last weeks Titan vs. Texans game. He looked like he was rigged for serious photography so I didn’t think he would mind if I took a picture of him.

Tech: Oly E-3 w/ 12-60 Zuiko @60mm, f4.5, 1/80, ISO1250 Post Processing: Duplicate Background>High Pass Sharpen>Merge Visible in Overlay Mode @ 68%>Merge Visible w/ B&W and Levels Adjustment Layer>Merge Visible w/ Lens Distortion Vignette.

Queen of the Parade

This little girl was definitely the Queen of the City of Baytown Parade this year. I don’t know if that was her actual title or not, but if it wasn’t it should have been.

Tech: Oly E-3 w/ 12-60 Zuiko, f5.0, 1/125, ISO1000, 60mm, Oly FL56R Flash Fired TTL Mode Post Processing: Crop>Duplicate Background>High Pass Sharpen>Merge Visible on New Layer>TA “Radiance”>Merge to Blur Background Layer>Merge to Brightness Layer to Darken Background

Plenty of Time

Here’s a shot from Sunday’s Houston Texans Vs. the Tennessee Titans football game at Reliant Stadium. Like most shots the pros take – they make it look easier than it really is!

Technical Info: Texas 13, Titans 12

Field Trip Shots

Last Tuesday night out photo club, the Bay Area Photo Club of Clear Lake, met for our monthly Honors Program. It’s an opportunity for members to submit works in either an “Open” category or an “Assignment” category. I enter the “Assignment” category because I like the challenge of conceptualizing and shooting [or just lucking into] shots for a specific topic. This often forces me to take shots and develop techniques I might not otherwise try.

Tuesday’s assignment was “Field Trip”- any shot you like from one of official club field trips for the calendar year of 2008- and these were my entry. The photo of the train was taken on our field trip to the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo Parade early in the morning. I darkened the photo, added the moon, and highlighted the lighting to give it an overall more mysterious mood. The two toy figures where on our Galveston filed trip. The figures where laying on the loading dock of a post-Ike Strand retailer along with other washed out fixtures, merchandise, and junk. I spotted them and, after setting them into position, snapped this shot.

Chupacabra

I usually photograph squirrels, birds, insects, and domestic animals in my back yard on the Texas Gulf Coast. However the other day I spotted this fellow [I believe it’s a Chupacabra] perched on a tree limb and just managed to snap a picture before he scampered off. I know they are not native to the Houston area so I suspect he probably came up from Mexico following the great herds of migrating goats that typically winter in South Texas before heading South again in the spring.

Tech: Panosonic Lumix 12X Superzoom, f3.6 & 1/15 @ -1 @ ISO 100, 60mm Post Processing: Duplicate Background>Level Adjustment Layer>Merge Visible to New Layer>High Pass Sharpen>Topaz Adjust “Simplify” Preset>Merge Layers>Lens Correction Vignette

Fireperson On Parade

Today’s post in another from the City of Baytown Christmas Parade. I like the photo because of the, to me anyway, surprise factor. Even in a parade you expect to see a big burly fireman hanging on the side of the fire truck, not an attractive blonde female.

Tech: Oly E-3 f5.0 & 1/25 @ ISO 1000, Zuiko 12-60 @ 60mm, On Camera FL56R Flash Fired TTL Mode Post Processing: Duplicate Background>Topaz Denoise>Levels Adjustment Layer to Lighten Mid Tones>Merge Visible >Lens Distortion Vignette

Clear Lake Park Triathlon

The Bay Area Photography Club made a field trip of a local Triathlon held at Clear Lake Park in Houston earlier this year where I captured this image. It was the first such event I had attended and was very interesting to watch and photograph. These participants are in the cycle staging area setting up there gear before the race.

Tech: Oly E-3 f5.0 & 1/25 @ ISO 125, Zuiko 12-60 @ 19mm, Flash Post Processing: Open in Photomatix Pro and Create Pseudo HDR>Open in PS2>Duplicate Background in Darker Color Mode>Color Balance Adjustment Layer>Merge Visible to New Layer>Lens Distortion Vignette

Dike Birds

This seascape was taken at the Texas City Dike in Texas City Texas on a BAPC photo field trip earlier this year. The dike was constructed in 1935 by the Army Corp of Engineers and extends into the Bay for about six miles. It has long been a favorite recreational venue for area residents to fish, swim, and boat. It was constructed of large blocks of tumbled granite with a paved road on top and featured [before hurricane Ike] several bait shops, fishing piers, shrimp boat docks, boat ramps, sandy beach areas, and picnic areas. Unfortunately the dike was all but wiped clean by Hurricane Ike which recently devastated the Texas Gulf Coast.

Tech: Oly E-3, 50-200 Zuiko lens w/1.4 Tele Converter @ 283mm, f11@1/640 and ISO 1250 Post Processing: Duplicate Background>Copy Lower Third to New Level and Scale for More Pleasing Crop>Merge Visible Layers>Levels>Curves

Cool Cat

This shot from the City of Baytown Christmas Parade last Friday night proves that “the coolest dudes are in the horn section.” When this guy came by the crowd there was no doubt that from the swagger to the glasses he “had it all goin’ on!”

Tech: Oly E-3 f5.0 & 1/125 @ ISO 1000, Zuiko 12-60 @ 60mm, Flash fired in Auto Mode Post Processing: Duplicate Background>Crop>Curves>Levels>Layer Merge w/Mask to Highlight Instruments>Hue/Saturation Layer> Merge Visible Layers in Luminosity Mode>Brightness/Contrast Adjustment Layer

Baytown Christmas Parade

Baytown held its annual Christmas Parade on Friday night and my wife and I braved the cold [for Texas anyway – about 45 degrees] for a couple of hours. I had hoped to come up with some “Holiday” shots for my photo clubs upcoming assignment on that topic, but didn’t really end up with anything out of the 140 shots I took that rose to that level. I did get a few I ended up liking that I will try to post here over the next few days. The balance fell short not only due to the usual technical issues I struggle with in limited light shooting, but also with other issues. The old downtown Texas Avenue venue often appears more run-down than quaint and gets worse all the time in spite of the city father’s efforts to save it. The crowd seemed festive enough but seemed to lack the right photogenic elements, and many of the parade participants could have been marching in any parade [e.g.: low-rider car clubs and karate clubs.] But then again that’s small town parades for you. I have no doubt that other photographers might have captured far better moments from the same spot I was standing.

Tech: Oly E-3 f4 & 1/60 @ ISO 1600 +1EV, Zuiko 12-60 @ 20mm, Flash fired in auto mode Post Processing: Duplicate Background>Crop>High Pass Sharpen>Curves>Levels>Topaz Adjust Noise Reduction, Topaz Adjust “Simplify” Preset>Crop>Lens Distort Vignette

Guitar Highway

I took advantage of this local highway project just before opening to stage this scene. It was part of an effort to fulfill an assignment for my photography club of “still life.”

Tech: Oly E-3 f4.5 & 1/60 @ ISO 1600, 60mm Post Processing: Duplicate Background>Curves>Mask Sheet Music to Minimize Hot Spot>Brightness Layer, Merge visible>Topaz Adjust Simplify>Lens Correction Distort

Father of the Bride

Back in October of this year my cousin Rick and his fiancé exchanged vows at an outdoor twilight wedding in west Houston. This shot of the bride and her dad was taken looking back over my shoulder from an isle seat near the front. I used my Oly E-3 and FL56R on camera accessory flash in TTL mode to capture the moment through my 12-60 Zuiko lens at the full 60mm focal length.

Tech: f7.1 & 1/125 @ ISO 800, flash fired Post Processing: Duplicate Background>Curves> Topaz Adjust Simplify

Mohawk Kid

This photo is taken at a family reunion in Sweeny, TX last June. It’s a distant cousin’s child so I not even sure of his name. One thing is for sure though this Mohawk-headed child was large and in charge at the reunion! Seemed like a natural to photograph with my E-3. I like the exposure in the shade of some large oak trees. Hope you like the photo.

Tech: Oly E-3 w/ 12-60 zoom, f7.1 & 1/160 @ ISO 1250, 55mm Post Processing: Duplicate Background>Curves>High Pass Sharpen>Topaz Simplify>Lens Distort>Vignette

Goat in a Tight Spot

I think this shot tells a story! And the moral of the story is that although the grass may be greener on the other side of the fence – it ain’t always easy to get to! Shot along side of a country road in Kerrville County this goat was captured [no pun intended] with a Panasonic Lumix Superzoom @ f4.5 an 1/640 at ISO100 and a 90mm focal length. If I had it to do over again I’d of used more of the 12X zoom capability of the camera instead of cropping about 50% to the shot you see here.

Post Processing: Crop>Duplicate Background in Overlay Mode>Merge to New Layer>High Pass Sharpen>Virtual Photographer Radiant Preset>Distort Lens Correction Vignette

Wild Berries

I like the simplicity and soothing colors of this shot. It was one of the rare ones I’ve taken that I liked in camera right away as shot. It was shot at Hugo Point Park in Chambers County between Baytown and Anahuac, TX in February of ’07. I was using a Panasonic Lumix Superzoom shooting at a 35mm equivalent 72mm at f4.0 for 1/500 and ISO 80.

In post processing I didn’t do much, just used Topaz’ “Mid-Color Pop” preset to bring in more of the green that was there that day [at least in my mind anyway.]

Just for Fun

Just thought I would have a little fun here with a multiple exposure technique Mark Johnson demonstrated [much better!] on the old “Radiant Vista” website. This photo is from the 2008 Livestock Show and Rodeo at the Reliant Center in Houston.

It’s based on a pseudo HDR generated from a single RAW image with Photomatix Pro 3.0. I selected the hammer and then rotated it using free-transform into different positions and using decreasing opacities on separate layers. I added color correction, sharpening, and a vignette to finish it off.

Tucker's Friend

This is my dog Tucker’s friend Chloe. Chloe is a 35 pound bundle of almond colored Standard Poodle puppy energy that has been staying with us for a week while her people were gone to Disney World on vacation. Between my wife and me we were able to get Chloe to sit still just long enough to shoot a few shots for this portrait.

For this shot Chloe was on a table in the shade of my backyard that I had set up with a black background [sheet]. To add a little fill light to the scene I used a 24” reflector with a silver and gold striped cover.

Tech: Oly E-3 w/12-60 Zuiko zoom, AP mode, ISO 100, f5, 1/80, 60mm Post Processing: Darkened blacks, increased clarity, and slightly saturated in Camera Raw, Opened in CS2 and cropped, sharpened using High Pass method, and added “mid-contrast pop” preset in Topaz.

Two Approaches

Today’s posts are of two different approaches to similar subjects. At least they are similar in as much as they are both photos of two men working high off the ground in industrial situations. In both photos I let the original conditions for the image capture point me in a direction for the post processing and ultimately to the final image. In the case of the sign hangers the post processing was only a crop and some basic color correction and sharpening. In the photo of the steel erectors the final image here is the result of twelve separate layers and quite a bit of photo manipulation. In both cases the images presented are an accurate representation of what I saw in the scenes that prompted me to capture the moments.

Canino's Farmers Market

Canino’s is one of the largest and oldest farmers markets in the city of Houston. This shot was taken on an overcast afternoon and was part of a series I shot for an “At the Farmer’s Market” assignment for the BAPC. I originally worked the shot up as a color image but I really like the way the B&W version draws my eye to the lighting, and the repetition of pattern created by the shopping carts out front.

Tech: Panosonic Lumix Super Zoom [10MP], f3.2, 1/100, ISO100, 20mm, aperture priority mode, RAW Post Processing: Cloning, Curves, High Pass Sharpening, B&W Adjustment Layer, Levels Adjustment to brighten mid-tones, Sepia Tone, Vignette.

Another Backyard Squirrel

I wanted to try out the combination of my 50-200 zoom and a new extension tube I had recently purchased, so I broke out the combo in the backyard. I took a series of photographs to test the close focusing ability of this combo and was mostly happy with the results. The combination did produce an extremely narrow depth of field and limited focal range that took some getting use to but once I did things worked out fine.

Tech: f3.5, 1/320, ISO800, 150mm, aperture priority mode Post Processing: High Pass Sharpening, Dup layer in Overlay mode, levels adjustment to brighten mid-tones, vignette.

King of the Jungle

I was surprised that I liked this shot at all. For one thing I generally don’t care for animal shots taken at the zoo. I guess its the whole idea of shooting a “wild” animal that is trapped in front of you. It kind of seems to me like paying a guide to take you on a hunt so that you can shoot a deer that’s tied off to a fence post!

On top of that, on this day the zoo was hot, crowded, and full of mosquitoes - so I was anything but inspired when I took the shot. Add to that the fact that I was shooting through at an inch of cloudy and scratched Plexiglas and I thought I certainly had the right prescription for an easily “deleteable” shot.

In this case though post processing made the difference. I started with the original shot, which was dull as a result of the cloudy plexi, and duplicated the background layer in overlay mode. This greatly improved the color saturation and gave me a much better starting point. From there I added a curves adjustment and high-pass sharpening for the final photo.

I had taken my Oly E-3 along for the shoot but unfortunately forgot to pack any batteries – what a pro! Luckily my old Panasonic Lumix Super-Zoom was in the car, with batteries, and I was able to use it for the day. Tech: Aperture Priority, 58mm, f3.6, 1/80, ISO 100, -1 exposure.

Rural Mailbox Floral

My brother and I spotted this mailbox/shrub scene in Chambers County, Texas a week or so ago while out on a photo junket. It caught my attention because of its vibrant purple color. Even though we are blessed to live in a semi-tropical zone 9 here on the Texas Gulf Coast I wasn’t expecting to see this much color near mid-November. I also like the rustic mailbox which adds additional interest and helps to convey a sense of the scenes rural location.

Tech: Oly E-3 w/ 50-200 and 1.4 Tele-converter, f4.2, 1/2000, ISO 800, 90MM, aperture priority mode. Post Processing: square crop, dup layer, curves, levels, Topaz Adjust– Simplify preset, vignette.

Canadian in Baytown

This was a scene often duplicated in the post Hurricane Ike Gulf Coast area. Many trees were lost, 750 on one local golf course alone, in what was reported as for more damage than what was sustained from Hurricane Alicia 25 years earlier. And on top of the completely destroyed trees many more suffered some degree of less-than-fatal damage.

This worker was a Canadian lumberjack who had hired on with a company from Mississippi that had come to work in Baytown after Ike. This small crew worked there way down the coast working cleanup from hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Ike over the past few years. We ended up hiring them to take out some of our trees, including one that had fallen on my workshop. This shot was taken while they were removing a couple of big pines from my neighbor’s house across the street.

Tech: Oly e-3, 50-200 lens, f4.9@ 1/1000, ISO400 Post Processing: high pass sharpening and curves [I usually stick with the "linear contrast" preset] and Lens Correction Vignete.

Bridge Cables

The Fred Hartman Bridge is a double-diamond cable suspended bridge that spans the Houston Ship Channel between the cities of Baytown and La Porte in Harris County Texas. It’s a very heavily traveled bridge so stopping to take a photograph on the bridge is not necessarily the best of ideas. Unfortunately neither is snapping a shot of the cables while you’re driving at 65 MPH but we do what we must for our craft, right?

I like the perspective in the photo, emphasized by the converging lines of the cables. I also like the way the bright yellow cables pop against the blue sky and the geometric pattern they create. To me it’s a simple straight forward shot, no story here – just a pleasing aesthetic.

I took the shot with my Panasonic Lumix Super Zoom in aperture priority mode at f3.6 and 1/1000th at ISO 200. The focal length was a 35mm equivalent 80mm.

Alamo HDR

In early September my wife and I took a trip to San Antonio with two other couples and stayed at a hotel on the River Walk. Along with the camaraderie and enjoyment inherent in the association with long-time friends there were also lots of photo ops. And certainly nothing says San Antonio like the Alamo, probably one of the most known and easily recognizable landmarks in the US. Unfortunately it’s also one of the most photographed! Well here is yet another Alamo shot, my attempt at capturing the much publicized mission in a slightly different light.

This shot is a handheld nighttime HDR made up of three exposures of -1, 0, and +1. After combining the photos in Photomatrix I opened the TIFF file in PS2, use high-pass sharpening and a curves adjustment layer to enhance it. I then merged the layers to create a flat image from the visible layer and used Virtual Photography’s “Copper” preset at layer opacity 50% to warm up the image. I like the way it turned out and hope you do as well.

Man's Best Freind

Dog's - you gotta love em', right? Photographers can no more resist a shot of an engaging dog than they can an old truck in a field or a shorebird! There's not that much in common between these two shots other than they are both dogs.

The "mom and pups" shot was taken last weekend while my brother and I were out shooting at Hugo Point Park in Chambers County. She appeared to be at worst abondoned or at best a "community" dog. Although this photo shows only two pups she actually had five, and mom and pups all looked healthy.

The Great Dane was in his yard at the fenceline calmly watching the traffic go by. He was a big fellow and made his companion, a full-grown Mastive, look small. I took the shot from the drivers side of my car when my wife and I spotted him as we drove by. I like the look of complacency on the dogs face and the way the fence adds a sence of scale to the shot.

Hope you enjoy them.

The Balinese Room

For many people the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Galveston, Texas is the Strand, the seawall, the old villa's and so on, but for me it has always been the business piers along the seawall. Unfortunately these have all been destroyed by Hurricane Ike as of September 12, 2008. Of the old piers one of the oldest and most interesting was The Balinese Room pier at 21st Street and the seawall.

The Balinese started its storied history in 1923 as the Chop Suey and became The Balinese in the early 1940's. It was quite the place then, THE place to be for big name entertainers in the pre-Vegas days. Hope, Benny, Sinatra, and ZZ Top all played there. You can read more about the Balinese's history at thebalineseroom.net.

This panorama was stitched together from 17 shots taken with my Oly E-3 and 12-60 lens. They were stitched together, straightened using distortion correction, and color corrected in PS2. I'm sure it was one of the last pano's made of the pier before it untimely destruction by Ike.

Panoramics of this size don't exactly lend themselves to display on most screens so you'll have to click the image to look at the larger version.

Hope you enjoy it.

Opening Post

Welcome to my blog. My name is Larry Armer and what you see here is an effort to create a vehicle to display some of my favorite photographs and say a thing or two. I just decided to set up a blog this evening after giving it some thought for a month or two. I'm really not that good of a writer or that good of a photographer but I've been watching my brother build his blog and it seems like a potentially good way to impove both. Also other club members have started doing the same and I couldn't resist the peer pressure.

Like any undertaking the hardest part is making the first step and for me the first step meant picking the right photograph to start off with. I couldn't decide whether I wanted to use my "best" shot, my "favorite" shot, or my "fill in the blank" shot. So I got hung up right from the start trying to decide if I could even pick a place to start.

So what got me off "high-center?" Usually if you wait long enough an answer will become obvious an this was certainly true for me tonight. The answer was the back story behind this picture.

Last June my wife and I took a vacation to a resort a longtime freind of hers works for in Lajitas Texas located between the National and State Parks of Big Bend in West Texas. We had scheduled several outtings for the trip including a horseback ride in the foothills around the resort. The picture you see here is of our tour guide for the ride. Scheduled for sunrise only her, my wife and I were to be on the ride. We rode with her in the lead for a couple of hours, talked, took a few pictures and really enjoyed ourselves and her company. The ride ended and we went on with our other activities.

Five months later our photography club was having our monthly Honors Night program and this month members where invited to enter pictures under the assignment "Environmental Portraits" and I immediately thought of this one. I didn't end up using it, because of some technical flaws, even though I really like the photo. Since I had spent the time in post processing trying to improve the shot for the program my wife thought that it would be a good idea to e-mail it to the quide for her enjoyment and to keep it from going to waste.

That brings us back to this evening and the motivation to build this blog. When my wife contacted her friend at the resort to get an e-mail addess for the young lady her freind informed her that she had been killed in a car accident two weeks ago! Her and some other workers at the resort had been commuting back to work when tragedy struck and ended her short life. Instead of sending the photo for a possible smile from the subject, I sent the photo tonight to my wife's friend to show at a business meeting tommorrow in her memory.

It was crystal clear to me now that I had my opening photo picked for me, and I would like to dedicate this opening blog entry to this pretty young girl. Although neither my wife or I can remember her name I know we will remember her spirit for a long time to come.